Importance Of Pastoral Guidance

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Pastoral guidance involves knowing, being and doing. According to John Patton, “Presence is not only prior to guidance, but also it continues on through any guidance that takes place. The guidance is strongly associated with wisdom. A guide points out the way [and] directs others on a course” (John Patton 35, 36). In addition, “in guidance, the major task is not directing the person’s life, but reminding and listening to the person cared for” (John Patton 37). John Patton talks about “the aspect of leading into the right paths, “[of which] one offers guidance and right direction first of all by listening carefully listening with care” (John Patton 42). “Without listening, the inward sense of the person is not expanded” (John Patton …show more content…

This kind of guidance is the pastoral’s deep concern to help the parishioner identify where she is, where she has been and where she wants to go” (John Patton 44). On the other hand, “leading beside still waters, a pastor tries to provide a steady and secure relationship that is relatively free from anxiety. In ministry, the pastoral carer’s task involves dealing with both his or her own anxiety and that of the patient. Learning to deal with anxiety comes from experience. The pastors’ anxiety needs to be experienced, recognized, shared and learned” (John Patton 38). “Leading a parishioner who is in some way lost or in crisis by still waters involves assuming that the person has some anxiety about his present situation. Pastoral care involves physical holding, the pastoral also offers the guidance of a secure and dependable relationship by acknowledging the parishioners’ anxiety and responding to it. In a secure relationship, one that can lead by still waters is one that has clear boundaries and limits” (John Patton 39, …show more content…

Additionally, this can lead to either of them not being open for fear of embarrassment. However, John Patton reminds me that “[in such a case,] pastoral wisdom is expressed first of all through the carer’s ability to lead through still waters to provide a steady and secure relationship that is free from anxiety”(John Patton 37). According to me my understanding, wisdom involves the ability to make sound choices and good decisions. It is not something a person is born with but it comes from living, making mistakes and learning from them. Although it involves intelligence, that is not always the case. In fact, I feel that wisdom can be found among relatively uneducated persons who have developed it through persistent learning from their experience. Moreover, this can help one to make sound choices and better decisions. On the other hand, according to my understanding, that one of the things that keeps a minister mired in anxiety in an unhealthy way, which is from not looking at the situation as an opportunity for growth is the idea of shame. Indeed,when we judge the carers spiritual life or even doubt our own faith in God because of anxiety, we ultimately push ourselves into a place of shame. I have often felt that way, but John Patton has opened my eyes in a wider view of how I can see anxiety. Similarly, John Patton says,

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